A number of new events are worth our attention.
First, a directive issued by the Zhangzhou Education Bureau, Fujian Province, states that children of "big taxpayers" can get 20 points more in their senior high school entrance exam.
By "big taxpayer," it means private entrepreneurs who turn over more than 3 million (US$375,000) to the local government annually.
Second, a practice has been introduced in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, that entrepreneurs are mandated to rate local officials' performance and even have the final say on the officials' dismissal or continued employment.
Third, big taxpayers, heavy investors, families where both parents hold doctorates and returned overseas scholars in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, are allowed to have a second child, along with other special groups of people such as the remarried. This is against the background that the country's family planning policy still holds.
These phenomena are important because they involve whether or not social or political privileges should be granted to certain social strata as rewards for their contribution to society, in the context that society is becoming more and more divided.
Or in other words, it involves the question of whether citizens' equal rights, which are guaranteed by institutional arrangements, are effectively protected and if the equality can be altered by some specific policies by local governments.
The problem is that privileges are really being given to some groups in some places, as is shown by these examples. And there are more such examples in other places.
Doubtless, all these measures are formulated in the name of promoting the local economies.
